Body Armor

Body armor is a pickup in the Grand Theft Auto series that serves primarily to protect the player's health from specific forms of damage, most notably gunfire. In most cases, body armor in the games are illustrated as a protective blue vest.

Contents

Description

First introduced in the original Grand Theft Auto, the body armor's primary function is to serve as padding for the player health, in effect extending the player's resilience to damage from gunfire, explosions and fire.

GTA III — GTA Vice City Stories

Body armor continued to be featured between GTA III and GTA Vice City Stories, undergoing several more evolutions. In all its of its appearances, armor now offer nearly the same amount of hitpoints as the player's full health, doubling the player's resistance to damage. The armor hit points stayed the same until GTA San Andreas where the armor is now a bar instead of hitpoints. In addition, armor can now pad injuries from falls, collisions with vehicles on foot, and even melee attacks; the armor in GTA San Andreas and GTA Vice City Stories is an exception, providing no protection to the player from falls, while the armor in Grand Theft Auto Advance provides no protection to melee attacks.

In addition to spawning in specific locales, body armor can also be purchased at stores that sell weapons, such as Ammu-Nation, as well as entering the police/SWATEnforcer trucks. Like the player's health, armor hitpoints between GTA Vice City and GTA Vice City Stories (sans GTA Advance) can typically be increased easily via side-missions (such as "Vigilante"), as well as completion of the game.

The appearance of armor pickups has also changed significantly after GTA III. When included in GTA III, the armor pickup assumed the appearance of a shield icon; in games after, however, the pickup is redesigned as a spinning vest, possibly to avoid confusion with the police bribe pickup.

GTA IV — GTA Chinatown Wars

Armor in GTA IV has been refashioned to protect the player mainly from bullets. It offers little protection to falls, collisions with vehicles on foot, or melee attacks (including hand-to-hand combat and melee weapons), increasing the player's chances of death from these hazards. Armor in GTA Chinatown Wars appears to revert to pre-GTA IV settings.

Like all pickups, armor can be found lying about in specific points of the city (distinguishable by its red glow) as well as underground weapon dealers in GTA IV or AmmuNation.net in GTA Chinatown Wars. NOOSEEnforcers still provide the player some armor, but only gives the player roughly one third of the maximum amount.

GTA V

Armor in GTA V has been overhauled; now there are 5 levels of armor the player can purchase from Ammu-Nation. Each armor's level of protection depends on its price point. Any armor pickups found throughout San Anderas will always give the player 100% armor. Body armor in GTA V reverts back to protecting the player from fall damage, but not melee attacks.

Level

Price

Protection

Super Light

$500

20%

Light

$1,000

40%

Standard

$1,500

60%

Heavy

$2,000

80%

Super Heavy

$2,500

100%

Gallery

Pickup in GTA 1.

Pickup in GTA 2.

Pickup in GTA III.

Pickup in GTA Vice City; reused in GTA San Andreas, GTA Liberty City Stories and GTA Vice City Stories.

Pickup in GTA Advance.

Pickup in GTA IV.

Pickup in GTA Chinatown Wars.

Locations

GTA 1

(To show your coordinates you have to enter a cheat code, use at your own risk)